Archive for February, 2015

We all like a challenge once in a while so here is one for you! How about this Lent you give something up, not every day, just every Thursday and use the time to think, pray and reflect on what faith is all about.

Lent is the time in the church’s year where we remember Jesus’ forty days and nights in the wildernesswhere he fasted from food and water all that time. That’s why Christians often decide to give something up during this season running up to Easter.

This 200th year as a church on the Waits Rev Matt Finch is inviting everyone to join him and others to fast on each Thursday in Lent. It is really important that as we look to the future seeking God’s will for us as a church and as individuals. It might be that you want to give up food and use the spare time you get from not eating to pray or read your bible. But maybe you could give up something else that takes up a lot of your time; TV, radio, social media, cups of tea and coffee or another thing.

Fasting from something is a sign to God that we are serious about listening and a chance to make a little more time to hear. It is not an activity reserved only for the super spiritual or mature Christian it is for us all. What we hear does not have to be a revelation that comes with a lightning bolt, more often than not God speaks in more ordinary ways if we are open to hear.

We would love to know if you are going to join us in Fast Thursdays and also what you feel God is saying when you do.

At our February Cafe Service we were looking at challenging ourselves in Lent, and as a community created our own Lent Challenge

Below is the list of actions/tasks that we came up with – if you want to take up this challenge, there is no specific order to things, so you make an order to suit yourself.

1. Offer to babysit for someone so they can have some time to themselves
2. Spend a few minutes in prayer each morning for those in need
3. Get in touch with someone with whom you have lost touch – letter, phone call, email
4. Invite someone over for dinner/evening meal/lunch/coffee
5. Visit someone who is unwell/in hospital – or send a card/gift
6. Buy a coffee for a stranger in the queue behind you / make coffee/tea for your work colleagues
7. Join a lent group
8. Help a neighbor with putting out their wheelie bin (or taking it back in!)
9. Sort out clothes and /or items and donate them to charity – or donate your time!!
10. Set aside time to read a verse form the Bible every day
11. Do your homework or a chore without complaining
12. Do something to help the environment locally – a 2 minute litter pick up in your street, put out food and water for birds
13. Help an elderly neighbor – pick up some shopping for them, help in teir garden, or just visit for a chat!
14. Send a thank you letter to someone who has helped you
15. Buy or make cakes for work colleagues/team mates/friends (eg Brownies or Scouts)
16. Offer to help a teacher at school with a task, or a work colleague or a friend
17. Give thanks and pray or the free education we have in this country
18. Get to know someone at church/work/school/a club who you have never spoken to before
19. Give up something on a Thursday (Fasting Fursdays) – a game on your phone/Facebook/biscuits/the TV – and spend some time reflecting on what Lent means to you
20. Pay a compliment to someone (a friend or a stranger!)
21. Include some extra items in your weekly shop and donate them to the Food Bank
22. Invite someone along to Café church
23. Make time to listen to others
24. Swap an evening meal for soup one night of the week and consider those less fortunate
25. Go for a walk and consider God’s world around us
26. Leave a thank you note to someone who provides a service to you – the postman, lollipop lady, someone who serves you in a shop regularly…
27. Share a Bible verse with someone
28. Make time to have a proper conversation with someone without any distractions.
29. Swap at least one of your regular weekly shopping items to a fairtrade or ethically sourced variety
30. Thank God for your talents and skills – how can you use them to help others and be generous?
31. Write a letter to someone overseas – a missionary, friends, family member or someone in need (Find out more from Amnesty International or Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
32. Set aside your loose change/pocket money every day/week in Lent and give to a charity or organization
33. Buy some wildflower seeds and sow them in a barren space or in your garden to encourage insects
34. Turn off your electronic stuff – TV, mobile, computer, tablet – and spend time with your family/household playing board games
35. Let it go – when in a queue let the person behind you go in front…
36. Give someone a lift who normally takes the bus to work/a group – even if it’s out of your way
37. Find out what’s happening in your area locally (read the local newspaper) and pray for situations that touch you – you could do this worldwide/nationally too)
38. Find out what needs doing at your church and offer your time or skills to help
39. Give thanks for our free healthcare and pray for those who work in this profession and for those around the world who are not so fortunate
40. Give thanks for others you care for and for those people who you struggle with or find difficult

It is breathe this coming Sunday evening at St Ives Methodist church. It starts at 7.30pm in the hall at the back of the church (so please use the side entrance to the church).

We will be reflecting on the idea of ‘contradiction’ in a world that; speaks of peace but prepares for war, speaks of equality of wealth but the rich are getting richer. I am sure you can think of some other examples! We will consider the way God contradicts the world; coming in weakness not power, loving not hating enemies, the first being last.

If you are unfamiliar with what breathe is all about, our time together is spent in stillness and silence, watching thought provoking videos and viewing images, listening to music and singing chants, and simple acts of rituals to mark the things that have challenged and inspired us.

We will be finished by 8.30pm and would love it if you can stay afterwards for a drink and some cake!

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